104 THE VOYAGE : PASSING IMPKESSIONS 



salt meat, and would drink water, limejuice, and grog ! Its 

 tameness and gentleness rendered it a general favourite, but 

 its spotless plumage soon turned gray, and then black. 



So too the common Jack penguins were easily tamed. 



At first we had about a dozen on board, running wild* 

 over the decks following a leader ; they cannot climb over 

 any obstacle two or three inches high, so we thought them 

 safe, until one day, the leader finding the hawse hole empty, 

 immediately made his exit, and was followed by the rest, 

 each giving a valedictory croak as he made his escape. 



[As food, the sheathbills] are tolerable eating, rather 

 tough though, and they have a rank flavour and smell when 

 newly killed, and require soaking before cooking, when they 

 eat well in pies and mulligatawny. 



[The penguins'] flesh is black and very rich, and was much 

 relished at first for stews, pies, curries, etc. ; after a day or 

 two we found it too rich, with a disagreeable flavour, whence 

 partly from prejudice I believe, they were dropped, except in 

 the shape of soup, which is certainly the richest I ever ate, 

 much more so than hare soup, which it much resembles. 



Certain annotations in the presentation copy of Ross's 

 Voyage deserve passing mention. They unmask two pieces 

 of unconscious humour on the part of Dr. McCormick, one a 

 mistake, the other the fruit of a well-laid practical joke. In 

 the scientific appendices, McCormick (II. 409) describes the 

 Kiwi or Apteryx, that wingless bird, as seeking * larvae and 

 seeds of a rush {Astelia Banksii), its favourite food.' On the 

 margin is pencilled * grows on liigh trees only.' And on p. 414 

 he describes the nest of the albatross, which ' only lays one egg. 

 In one instance only I found two eggs in the same nest (both 

 of the full size, and one of them unusually elongated in its 

 longest diameter), although I must have examined at least 

 a hundred nests.' Indeed a puzzle, anxiously detailed ; but 

 we smile at the accusing pencil, ' placed there by Oakeley,' 

 the mate of the Erehus. 



